– When I visited the West Coast of the United States in 2003 and 2004,some of the my Greek American friends told me a story that theirparents and grandparents had told them about a Japanese ship involvedin the transportation of Greek and Armenian refugees to Piraeus fromSmyrna in September 1922. My initial reaction to this information wasone of skepticism, but I also kept an open mind.

On my return to Australia, I checked my files and couldn’t find any evidence of aJapanese ship being in the harbor of Smyrna at the time of Greek exodusfrom Asia Minor. Considering my initial disappointment, I let thematter rest until a few weeks ago, when I accidentally stumbled acrosssome newspaper articles and a U.S. Department of State documentmentioning an unnamed Japanese ship in Smyrna. The news articles anddocuments are reproduced below:

NEW YORK TIMESATHENS (Sept. 18, 1922, pg. 2) –

Refugees constantly arriving from Asia relate newdetails of the Smyrna tragedy. On Thursday last, there were sixsteamers at Smyrna to transport the refugees, one American, oneJapanese, two French and two Italian. The American and Japanesesteamers accepted all comers without examining their papers, while theothers took only foreign subjects with passports.

ATLANTA CONSTITUTION(Oct. 15, 1922, pg. A9)

Smyrna Horror Described by Atlantan John S. OwensJr., Writes of Horror to Parents Here (an excerpt from a long article)…There was a Japanese warship in the harbor, Contrary to the action ofevery other man-of-war in Smyrna, this warship took board every refugeeit could possibly find room for. There was also a cargo boat fromNippon there. When it saw this, it dumped a large part of its cargooverboard, and took off all the refugees and carried them to Piraeus.American, British, French and Italian, and everybody else told therefugees that they could only take their own nationals on board, and itremained for the lowly Japs to prove their mettle…

JAPAN TIMES & MAIL(October 21, 1922, pg. 6)

Consul Tells of Suffering in Near East, U.S. OfficialPraises Work of American Colony at Smyrna (excerpt from article)… AJapanese merchantman brought succor to the refugees en route to Greece,and gave them the kindest treatment…

BOSTON GLOBE(December 3, 1922, pg. E4)

Japanese at Smyrna, Mrs. Anna Harlowe Birge, Wife ofProfessor Birge of the International College at Smyrna, Tells of anIncident when Smyrna Was Being Burned. The desperate refugees werecrowding each other off the wharves, and the harbor was full of men andwomen swimming around in the hope of rescue until they drowned. In theharbor at that time was a Japanese freighter which had just arrived,loaded to the decks with a very valuable cargo of silks, laces andchina, representing many thousands of dollars. The Japanese captain,when he realized the situation did not hesitate. The whole cargo wentoverboard into the dirty waters of the harbor, and freighter was loadedwith several hundred refugees, who were taken to the Piraeus and landedin safety on Greek shores.

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE(767.68/450)

George Horton, American Consul General, Athens, Greece to the Secretaryof State, Washington, Sept. 18, 1922 (an excerpt)… “A Japanese boatbrought off some refugees, and I have heard threw overboard some oftheir cargo for the purpose. Passengers on the ship speak in thehighest terms of the kindness of the Japanese officers and men.”Thereare four conclusions which can be drawn from the evidence presentedabove. First, the news articles and Horton’s dispatch mention anunnamed Japanese ship and an unnamed captain and his crew who deserveto be honored and remembered for their fine humanitarian assistancerendered to the Asia Minor refugees. Second, these news stories werepublished in respected U.S. and Japanese newspapers. Third, theJapanese are portrayed in a positive light. And finally, all accountsrefer to one Japanese ship except John S. Owens Jr., who mentions twoJapanese ships in Smyrna harbor.I conducted a further search of theU.S. Department of State records on Turkey to locate additionalmaterials on the unnamed Japanese ship. The war diary entries compiledby Admiral Mark L. Bristol, the U.S. High Commissioner inConstantinople (1919-27), for the period September-December 1922 didnot shed any light on this very interesting story. Why such a piece ofinformation wasn’t recorded in the war diaries is difficult to say. Ican only guess that, with all the confusion and chaos taking placealong the Smyrna quay, it would have been very easy to overlook thisJapanese ship, as thousands of Greeks and Armenians were trying to fleefrom the Kemalists. The war diaries list the names of American,British, French and Italian and Greek ships involved in the evacuationof foreign nationals and refugees from Smyrna.On September 20, 1922Bristol recorded a conversation he had with Mr. Uchida, the JapaneseHigh Commissioner in Constantinople, in his war diary regarding theNear East crisis. Uchida had come to find out information on whathappened in Smyrna. According to Bristol, Uchida was sympathetic to theTurks. Admiral Bristol was also a known Turkophile. I also checkedthe Japan Times & Mail, a Japanese newspaper published in Englishin Yokohama, for clues regarding shipping movements destined andleaving the port of Yokohama covering September-October 1922. Icouldn’t find information of any Japanese ship being in Smyrna harborin mid-September 1922. But there are four Japanese ships – the SuwaMaru, Altai Maru, Fushimi Maru and Mishima Maru – which worked theEuropean service from London, Hamburg via Marseilles, Port Said Suez,Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong to Yokohama route. There may be apossibility that one of these ships, enroute between Marseilles andPort Said, could have diverted its course for Smyrna.I regard thisarticle as work in-progress, as additional sources will need to bechecked in the hope of ascertaining the name of the Japanese ship andits heroic captain who threw a part of the ship’s cargo overboard intothe polluted water of Smyrna harbor. The Bristol papers and Japaneseforeign office documents held in the Library of Congress and Japanesenational archives, respectively, could also provide some information.Moreover, surviving records of Japanese commercial shipping companiesoperating in European and Mediterranean waters might provide the nameof the ship.My initial research findings raise more questions thananswers; but it also offers the opportunity to examine Japanesediplomacy and trade in the Near East in the post-1919 period. A lot ofJapanese historical research covering the period 1919-23 concentrateson Japan’s relations with Soviet Russia, the United States, GreatBritain, China and France concerning issues of economic concessions inSiberia and China and naval disarmament in the Pacific.

The examination of the Asia Minor Catastrophe from a Japanese point of viewwill help to broaden and deepen our knowledge of the blackest page inModern Greek history. A comparison of the Japanese view (Far East) withthat of the Europeans (Western view) would make a very interestingstudy on the events which occurred in Smyrna in September 1922.

I would like to hear from individuals who may have information regardingthe unnamed Japanese ship and its crew, and also the attitude of theAsia Minor refugees towards their Japanese rescuers.

Mr. Stavridis is Historian/Researcher at the National Centre for HellenicStudies & Research at Latrobe University in Bundoora, Victoria(Australia).